It’s time for the Bruins to start training camp before the party over the Stanley Cup championship overflows too much and someone actually gets hurt.

Luckily, the Bruins will start captains’ practices later this week and report for the official start of camp next Friday, when they’ll perform their conditioning tests and take their physicals. Milan Lucic’s latest run-in with the law proves that it’s all fun and games — the general debauchery that has been some of the Bruins’ celebrations — until the cops show up.

According to the Boston Herald’s Inside Track, Lucic was questioned by cops early Tuesday after witnesses saw him in a verbal altercation with his girlfriend. No charges were brought against Boston’s left winger. A team spokesperson told the Herald that there would be no official statement from Lucic and that the team was taking care of the matter internally. The Herald said Lucic’s market rep Cleon Daskalakis had this to say:

Daskalakis said Lucic has been under “a lot of pressure” since the B’s won the Stanley Cup, but stressed, “He’s a great guy.”

Ah yes, the pressures of already having won the Cup. We’ve all been there. They’re right up there with losing your job, battling disease … oh, that’s terrible Cup-champion pressures.

Nonetheless, odd statements by marketing gurus aside, it’s probably about time for the Bruins to get at least partially back on the wagon and start thinking about business instead of partying and other mischief. Maybe this incident was given more attention that it deserved, maybe not. It seems that the girlfriend in question, Brittany Carnegie, doesn’t have any problem with anything that happened, as she Tweeted: “Ppl can believe whatever but I assure you this was blown out of cntrl. Either way Milan is a class act and they way he was portrayed and the situation was terrible!”

But either way, people like Lucic have to be much more careful about their actions. Part of winning any championship — especially one that allows players to parade around with super-shiny, silver trophy that seems to have “Pied Piper” capabilities — is more notoriety. Lucic and all the Bruins should use this incident as a refresher about what it means to comport yourself in public and not do anything that could be misconstrued or blown out of proportion. Bare-chested, drunken photos are a hoot and all, but they can open up an individual to all sorts of accusations and compromising situations.

In effect, it’s time to hit the ice and get back to what the Bruins do best.

RD
Pacioretty was brought in because of JPT’s comments about Chara. I know that head injuries are different and hard to predict/treat. I am happy to see Max P. playing again. No one would want any player’s career over prematurely. I think the Montreal fan reaction,to the hit, was way over-the-top, for reasons I have already stated.
The Bruins will be hungry because they’re the Bruins. They have a Stanley Cup to defend. However, you are right when you say a couple of key injuries and a number of teams would have much lesser chance to be successful, in the playoffs. The B’s are one of those teams.

Bruins16, how do you know the Bruins are still hungry? They haven’t even played a game yet. I’m not saying they aren’t hungry, my points are more along the line that the season is a long grind and the teams are all so close in ability. The Habs finished pretty close to the Bruins and gave them a real close series without their franchise player (lots of people just forget about Markov because his injuries have been so bad and frequent). It looks like any 8-10 teams could take the cup on any given season.

One thing, why bring Pacioretty into this? You seem like a reasonable guy but a fracture of the next and a concussion is bad news. So Max came out of it better than some other players? The ONLY thing I think people can agree on with concussions is that doctors absolutely can’t predict how long it takes to recover. Just because the guy can tweet or look at a film doesn’t mean he can skate at full power without experiencing symptoms. You should watch the Sydney Crosby press conference to get a good handle on how complex head injuries are.

Anyways, I’m not actually hating on the Bruins. I’m predicting top 3 in the conference for them with the Habs somewhere close behind. As for playoffs, anything goes.

I think we sort of agree. It is hard to repeat because the playoffs are such a grind and a battle. There is lots of luck involved. That said, the Bruins are a top tier team and have as good a chance to win the 2012 cup as any other team.

I think the short offseason hurts, but I think the team is rested and ready. Sign Marchand and move forward

RD
You are right when you say it is not easy to repeat. I agree with you regarding the Habs and Bolts being close series, but the Canucks should have only won the first game. I know the series went seven games, but if your competitive you shouldn’t get steam-rolled like the Canucks were.
The Bruins are still hungry and haven’t changed that much! We also want to prove to all Hab fans that we should have taken seven games to get rid of your boys.
JPT
Chara’s hit against Pacioretty wasn’t a goon shot. You must have led ALL callers to the Montreal Police station wanting them to get involved. Check out Chara’s history! Why was your boy, Pacioretty, tweeting within 24 hours of the injury? Let’s just call it the new Habs!

I would love to see the bruins win it, trust me. But I think you have to acknowledge that with the parity in the league, it takes an extra amount of sacrifice to win it all, and that is incredibly difficult to pull off in back to back seasons.

Its not like they are the Oilers with Gretzky, Messier and whoever else who can out-skill you to death, they are a team that requires hard work to succeed, and 100+ games back to back is too draining.

What are you basing that on? Too many guys have it too cushy? What does that even mean? They have a better chance of winning it again than 75% of the league, ie, they are one of 8-10 teams with a real shot. I will take that.

The playoffs are too long and require too much luck for any one team to be a definite to win or a definite to not win/repeat. The playoffs are nuts. That is why they are great.

As for Lucic, he is 22 or something, got drunk and had an argument with his girlfriend. No one here did that? Please. No abuse, no charges, no story

Bruins16, you do realize that in this league, it’s very difficult to build a dynasty. The Canadiens are a top 8 team in the conference, the Bruins are a top 4 team. Sure you guys won the cup but it wasn’t like you guys steamrolled everyone. Montreal, Tampa and Vancouver all had you on the ropes at some point in those series. You were one Michael Ryder glove save from being eliminated in round 1.

While I agree that this is a non-story and add that whatever these players want to do on their free time is not my place to worry about, but it does illustrate one of the cliche reasons for why teams won’t repeat. I know we all hate to see it with our Bruins, but it is a cliche for a reason.

It is ludicrous to think that the motivation to win a cup is going to be as strong this year as it was before winning it.

I do however agree that the Bruins are very well positioned for the future, and could win many cups in the next 5-10 years, I just can’t see how one of those will come next year.

Jack,
These are men in their 20s making millions of dollars per year. The difference in partying they did this year and last year is probably negligible. The only difference is they did it with a Stanley cup in the photo.

The Bruins tasted failure for almost 40 years. That is not a winning formula Jack.

Jack,
Everyone knows it’s really hard to repeat, and you just gave a list of reasons why. They stand a better chance of pulling it off than Chicago did, but still won’t be a cakewalk. Remember, this is a long season where a lot will happen, although I bet the Bruins will get off to a rough start.

I agree with RD. Maybe Lucic handled it too publicly, but not a lot of details were provided. Were they even drinking? I haven’t seen any details on it. Probably the best thing that could come of this is Lucic gets a stiff warning from management and police and it helps him keep his temper in check (in public). Negatives? JPT can likely tell us those.

Is it too quick? It is no secret that this team has enjoyed the parties that come with the cup this summer, and for a young team (Seguin, Marchand in particular, but Luc could slip into this category) it could be easy to forget how much hard work it takes to win the cup.

Combine this with the extremely short off-season and it is an incredible uphill battle to get back there.

I would be much more shocked if they win the cup next year than I was that they won it this year.